Prepared food products come in a wide variety of styles. Many prepared food products, whether ready-to-eat or those needing further cooking, are prepared with a coating that makes the food product more appealing. Such prepared food products include entrees, appetizers, desserts (such as pastries, donuts), etc., and includes meats, cheese, fruit and vegetables, etc. The types of coatings used on these food products include dry coatings such as flour, bread crumbs, corn meal, sugar and spice and the like.
In the food preparation industry, food coatings are generally classified by appearance as flour breading, free flowing (such as cracker meal or bread crumbs), and Japanese-style crumbs which tend to be elongate and crispy. Food coatings may also include seasonings, spices, shortening, etc., as needed to add flavor and texture to the food product. Other coatings such as ground cereal, dried vegetables or the like, may also be employed.
Each coating mixture has inherent characteristics that present challenges to machinery used to automatically and mechanically coat food products. For example, flour mixtures, which consist of finely ground dust-like particles, have a tendency to pack under pressure, thereby decreasing the free-flow properties of the coating mixture around the food product, which can decrease coating uniformity. Similarly, coating mixtures recognized as free-flowing include reasonably hard and roughly spherical particles ranging in size from dust to larger particles, such as cornmeal, cracker meal or the like. Free-flowing mixtures in automated coating processes can often flow or leak out of the machinery.
Japanese-style crumbs have no uniform shape, are very delicate, and are crystalline-like in nature and appearance. So, the coating machine should be able to properly handle this type of breading material to avoid degradation of the quality and particle sizes thereof. Japanese-style crumbs consist of modified wheat flour with small percentages of yeast, salt, sugar, vegetable oil and other additives. The Japanese-style crumbs appear to be dried shredded white bread having particles ranging in size from as large as ½ inch to as small as flour size particles.
Some food products have a batter applied to them before the coating or topping is applied. When a batter applicator is used before the coating or topping is applied, time is saved when both the batter applicator and the coating or topping run at the same or similar speed and when both have the same or substantially similar product output width. This provides a continuous flow of food product during both processes. These attributes are also helpful in non-batter applications, such as going from a breading application to a frying application.
While the automation of the food coating process is economically desirable, another goal of the food coating process is to make the coating appear to be “home-made.” However, most automatic food coating processes fail to make “home-style” appearing foods. In the commercial production of prepared foods, a large variety of food products are machine-coated with breading, flour or the like before being fried, (or otherwise cooked) or simply frozen and packaged.
Some food products have what is called a “home-style breading,” which simulates a breaded food product prepared in the home. This can be done, for example, by dipping food, such as pieces of raw chicken, in a bowl with beaten egg and then placing the egg coated food into a bag containing flour and optionally spices, herbs, seasonings, shortening, etc., to form a coating which adds flavor and texture to the product. Other coating material such as ground cereal, dried vegetables or the like may be used as desired. The bag is moved back and forth to coat the many surfaces of the food product. This technique can be useful for coating food products having many, oftentimes hidden surfaces, such as chicken, because in moving the bag, the surfaces of the food products are exposed to the coating. The technique is also useful for coating various other food products. The flour coated food is then fried in a frying pan or deep fryer in the home.
Generally, the food industry prefers to use an automated and continuous food coating process wherever possible while still achieving a “home-style” look. In the food processing industry, home-style breading food products have been prepared using a drum type breading apparatus, wherein a food coating, such as flour, is added to a hollow drum with axial ribs along inner surfaces of the drum. The food products to be coated are added to the drum via a first conveyor that drops food products into the drum. The drum rotates so that the food products are tumbled along with the coating. The tumbling process unfolds food products that are folded and exposes surfaces of the food products to the coating. Although producing a desired coating appearance and texture, particular problems encountered in a drum breader include the food products being collected in a pile at the bottom of the drum. The pile of coated food products is deposited on the center of a second conveyor belt that takes food products away from the drum. Therefore, food exiting on the second conveyor belt must be spread and aligned along the width of the conveyor belt before it goes to another operation, such as freezing. This adds another step to the processing of food products. It also can result in low quality food products if food is not properly redistributed along the conveyor width. For example, food can be clumped together and then the next step in the food processing is not carried out in an optimal way. Where food is frozen after being on the second conveyor, clumps of food can be frozen together, making weighing, cooking, and packaging of it very difficult and oftentimes resulting in costly waste. In addition, drum style breaders are often difficult to clean and require intensive maintenance.
The use of a drum breader has many disadvantages, particularly when used on a high capacity manufacturing line. The first disadvantage is that the product is discharged from a drum breader in a narrow pile and must be then spread back out to the typical line width which can be 3-4 times the pile width. This process is often done with an additional piece of equipment placed after the drum breader. Additionally, many processors also like to align and lengthen food products such as a chicken strip before they go into a fryer or freezer to maximize the line capacity and also provide a more visually appealing product. This task is also accomplished using an additional piece of equipment placed after the drum breader.
Further, the drum breader is not very effective at sifting flour that has not adhered to the food product. Because of this, excess coating is often discharged from the drum breader along with the food product where it either falls to the floor causing waste or is carried down stream causing problems with further processes such as ruining the oil in a fryer. Additionally, due to the size of the drum breader and because of the ancillary equipment that is often needed to spread and align the product after it, home style lines can get very long and therefore can be difficult to accommodate.
Other types of food coating devices employ endless mesh belts. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,117,235 discloses a continuous coating and breading apparatus which includes a conveyor belt made of stainless steel mesh. The conveyor has various stations along its length. Food items are deposited on the belt at an infeed area and are coated with the coating mixture on the bottom surface. The conveyor belt carries the food items under a “waterfall” of food coating that covers the top surface of the food items. The conveyor passes under one or more pressure rolls that pat the coating mixture onto the food pieces, and/or a blow off device, removing excess coating. The coated food product is deposited at a discharge area. In commercial practice, such systems may employ as many as six conveyors to spread the coating mixture and achieve acceptable consistent operation and performance. Further, as it is customary to use a drum breader for applying a coating to durable food products that require agitation to fully coat, such as chicken, and a mesh conveyor belt to apply coating to fragile food products, at least two machines are required. The use of two machines requires extra space and extra maintenance.